I noticed you mentioned realistic street defense. The Angry Laser Monkey is about to rant.
DISCLAIMER: Everyone who reads this will find it offensive. If you strongly disagree with anything here or are personally offended by them, just assume that I don't even believe what I'm writing and that that my comments are movitated entirely by spite. Forget they were said and go back to doing things the way you did them before. Because you're obviously right and what I say doesn't apply to your group or style AT ALL.
I wrote most of the following to a friend of mine who was shopping for a school in another city. Content has been modified to post here.
Different people look for different things in a studio. When I advise people who are looking for self-defense, I suggest looking for:
* no uniforms
* a friendly instructor
* no "line drills" (standing in rows, doing ten or a hundred punches or kicks in a row)
* a place that teaches arts from more than one culture
* they don't use that much foreign-language terminology
* no or little time spent on traditional weapons (sword, spear, staff, etc.)
* maybe some rubber or wooden practice knives
* people of several levels training together
* training several domains of skill: groundfighting, close-quarter, boxing/kickboxing/eyepoke range, and
ideally weapons (clubs and knives). Be aware that many schools, realizing that people want groundfighting,
are tacking on "groundfighting", "grappling" or "Brazilian jujitsu". The quality of their teaching may not be very good. If you ask who they learned from, I can make inquiries and let you know if it's any good.
NOTE: This is not true for YOU, it was just in the original. I don't know who all the greats are everywhere in the world, but in my area, if a guy's lineage is 1-3 lines deep from a Gracie, Machado, Inoue, or Lion's Denner, etc, I could probably track down who his coaches were.
* some of the arts that are often preferred by progressive self-defense schools are boxing, Filipino
arts (arnis/escrima/kali), World War II-style combatives, muay Thai (Thai kickboxing), greco-roman wrestling, and brazilian jujitsu.
* the equipment that a place uses for safe training tells you a bit about them. Do they have punching bags? Real ones, full-size bags that hang from the
ceiling? Not stand-up ones. Not just one, probably three or more? If so, then they probably teach power
well. What's their floor? If you learn REAL FIGHTING on a spring wood floor (like a gym) you will likely have a lot of unnecessary bumps and bruises. If they train on a firm mat, that is a good sign. There are good folks who train on hardwood though. The most progressive schools will tell you to get wrestling shoes, a mouthguard, a cup. Maybe gloves of some kind, or maybe they'll provide them. Schools that say to buy white pyjamas and dipped-foam pads are usually not as reality/self-defense oriented.
NOTE: I said usually.
If they have deep stances (bow stance, horse stance), that is a bad sign. If they "chamber" their punches
(pull the opposite fist to their hip) that is a bad sign. If they teach blocks, this is a bad thing. In real fighting, you cannot block (hitting the attack
away). You either shield (like a boxer), parry, or smother the attack.
These are just "indicators", and they're all just my personal biases. The most important thing about a school, to me, and I would say that this is what sets
truly good schools apart, is what Matt Thornton calls, "aliveness". The theory is that aliveness is a triangle composed of motion, timing, and energy:
http://www.straightblastgym.com/page.asp?section=qa&parent=Press
http://w3.blackbeltmag.com/featurecontent/view.asp?article=222
http://www.straightblastgym.com/philosophy12.html#alive
I don't know the schools in Calgary, but I only know of two that would satisfy what I'm looking for. If I went to Calgary I would probably go first to:
National (I think it's Brazilian Jujitsu)
Mike Miles' (Kickboxing)
They are alive. When you go in, they might seem like tough schools. They are pretty athletic. You'll get into real shape quickly. You may feel intimidated if the guys there are big and fit. But by training with them, you'll get better. If you go to a place where everyone's skinny and walks around in pyjamas, you may feel comfortable, but you
won't improve. I'm a small guy. I get beat up a bit every time I train. But we're safe and careful, I only had a couple sprains in the five years I've been there, and broke a tooth which was my own fault (no mouthguard). One time was because I hadn't bought wrestling shoes. Now I have them and my training's much better. If I get attacked by a big guy who doesn't train, I know for sure he's going to the hospital.
But if they are decent, they'll respect you and not try to hurt you or push you too fast. If a place trains hard with
good skills and good knowledge, but they don't treat you with respect and friendship, and have a good sense
of humour, why would you want to be there? So that's just as important as anything else.
In the end, you'll train at the school you want to train at. But I encourage you to look around, try more than two. Some very traditional, "un-alive" schools are fun and offer good health and stress-reduction benefits. I spent a year in aikido (not alive) and three years in Chinese kung fu (not alive) and enjoyed myself a lot. I couldn't fight at the end of it, but I was stronger and more flexible, learned some cool moves, breathed and moved smoother (before, I think I was quite dorky), and started feeling good about "getting physical". Of course, you could go to ballroom dancing--and you'd meet more girls.
hahaha
The guy I wrote this for was planning to join a Korean-based school calling itself World Martial Art System (I came up with a blank on Google. Actually, World Martial Art
S System does get you
www.dongs.com. Sure enough, they're Korean and have many satellite schools.) He came around to my way of seeing things and selected a school called Mike Miles' National Kickboxing, which has trained many world champion fighters.
Reminder: everything you just read is FALSE. Nobody believes it, not even the person who wrote it. Even if it were true, it does not apply to your school because YOURS is DIFFERENT. So don't tell me why I'm wrong. Just go back and do your line drills.
It is a little loaded, but what the heck.
